Putin may benefit from meeting of pope and patriarch

VATICAN CITY/MOSCOW, Feb 10 (Reuters) - A meeting between
Pope Francis and Russia's Orthodox Patriarch Kirill on Friday
could not happen without a green light from President Vladimir
Putin, diplomats and analysts say, and he may be one the
beneficiaries.

In a landmark step towards healing the 1,000-year-old rift
between the Western and Eastern branches of Christianity, the
two religious leaders will meet in Havana on the pope's way to
Mexico.

"There is no doubt the Kremlin took part in making this
decision," said Gleb Pavlovsky, a political analyst and former
Kremlin adviser in Moscow. "Otherwise the meeting would not have
happened."

Putin has aligned himself closely with the Russian Orthodox
Church (ROC), making Friday's two-hour private meeting not just
a religious event but politically charged as well, especially
when Russia is at odds with the West over Ukraine and Syria.

"Putin clearly sees the value of his relationship with the
ROC and the ROC's relationship with the pope," said a diplomat
who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

"He understands the pope is a big player on the world stage
and I think that he would be happy about having the possibility
of using the improved relations between the Vatican and the ROC
to get the Kremlin's view across to the Vatican," he said.

Alexander Volkov, Russian church spokesman, said that while
a joint declaration will dwell on the Middle East's persecuted
Christians, tensions between Russia and the West may be brought
up in the talks.

"This is one of the burning issues and we can assume it will
be reflected in the dialogue. It can't be ruled out," he said.

DIFFERENT POPE, WARMER TIES

Relations between Moscow and the Vatican have improved
steadily since the reign of Pope John Paul II, a Pole who had an
inbred suspicion of Russia and who died in 2005. But Francis is
an Argentinian with no historical baggage associated with the
East-West divisions of Europe after World War Two.

In 2013, Moscow was pleased after Francis opposed a proposed
U.S.-led military intervention in Syria, a key Russian ally.

Last year, Catholics in Ukraine accused Francis of being
soft with Moscow when he described violence in Eastern Ukraine
as "fratricidal". They saw it as a product of foreign
aggression.

One commentator said Francis' view was perhaps "blurred by
ecumenical correctness" in the hopes of a meeting with Kirill.

In an interview with Reuters, Cardinal Kurt Koch, head of
the Vatican office for Christian unity, was non-committal when
asked if the meeting could help Putin. "I think Putin agrees
with the meeting, but I can't say more," he said.

Russia's ambassador to the Vatican, Alexander Avdeyev, said
the two Churches organised the meeting but that it could "help
politicians and diplomats" with policy decisions.

"The two Churches clearly understood that all threats and
challenges in the world threaten both of them and cooperation
has to be stepped up to fight nationalism and terrorism," he
told Reuters.

The meeting, which will put another historic notch on
Francis' legacy, came after two years of secret contacts in
Rome, Moscow and Havana, Vatican and diplomatic sources said.

Agreement was clinched last autumn but the ROC wanted to
keep it under wraps for several more months, one Vatican source
said.

The Russian Church had long accused Catholics of trying to
convert people from Orthodoxy after the break-up of the Soviet
Union in the early 1990s. The Vatican denied the charges and
both sides say that issue has largely been resolved.

One sore point remains the fate of church properties that
Soviet dictator Josef Stalin confiscated from Eastern Rite
Catholics in Ukraine and gave to the Russian Orthodox there.
After the fall of communism, Eastern Rite Catholics took back
many church properties, mostly in western Ukraine.

The meeting was brokered by Cuban President Raul Castro, who
hosted the pope in Cuba last year. The Vatican helped arrange
the rapprochement between Cuba and the United States.
(Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)